Texas oil tycoon, Tracy W. Krohn, awaits the results of the Academy Awards for his recent investment in the production of the five-time Oscar-nominated “Black Swan” movie. At the same time, he also awaits the results of his entry to the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Series, a global sports car racing series that includes the Le Mans 24-hour race.

Tracy Krohn, owner of the Krohn Racing team, announced his team’s entry submission to the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Series. The truly global ILMC sports car series includes two races in the United States/North America, four in Europe and one in China from March to November in 2011.

ESPN Motorsports producer jailedUPDATE Public indecency and disorderly conduct charges against former ESPN senior motorsports producer Neil Goldberg have been dropped, according to Connecticut criminal online records. The charges stemmed from an October arrest following a peeping incident in which he was allegedly masturbating outside a neighbor’s window while watching her get dressed. Goldberg appeared Thursday in Hartford Community Court in front of Judge Raymond Norko, who dismissed all charges, Goldberg attorney Richard Brown said Friday.

Goldberg, who lost his job at ESPN following the arrest, never admitted guilt and there was no finding of any criminal wrongdoing.

“Mr. Goldberg does not constitute a danger to the community. … Because of his otherwise unblemished record, he was given the benefit of the doubt,” Brown said.

NASCAR Announces 2011 TV ScheduleNASCAR today released its '11 TV schedule. Regular-season Sprint Cup Series races in the Eastern and Central time zones will begin at 1:00pm ET; West Coast events will start at 3:00pm. Night races will start at 7:30pm, with the exception of the Coca-Cola 600 starting at 6:00pm. Chase for the Sprint Cup races will begin at 2:00pm, with the last three races starting at 3:00pm. Fox will air 13 Sprint Cup races, TNT will have six, and ESPN and ABC will carry the final 17 events. ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will air 33 of the 34 Nationwide series races; Speed will air the April 29 Bubba Burger 250 at Richmond Int'l Raceway.

ESPN at NASCAR’s Daytona SpeedweeksESPN will provide two weeks of comprehensive coverage of Speedweeks and the start of the NASCAR season at Daytona International Speedway across its multimedia platforms. Television coverage, highlighted by a Daytona 500 origination for ESPN’s flagship program SportsCenter, an expanded schedule for ESPN2’s daily news program NASCAR Now, coverage of NASCAR Media Day on ESPNEWS, and NASCAR Nationwide Series practice and qualifying, will culminate with the NASCAR Nationwide Series 300-mile race on ESPN2 on Saturday, Feb. 19.

Other TV highlights include NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series preview shows on ESPN2, the premiere of the original film Wendell Scott: A Race Story and the airing of multiple past Daytona 500 races on ESPN Classic.

Las Vegas offers free NASCAR tickets to displaced Super Bowl fansWhere the NFL and the country's largest football stadium failed 400 disappointed football fans, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the Stratosphere Hotel, Casino and Tower have come through. The speedway and the country's tallest hotel-tower have partnered to offer tickets to the March 4-6 NASCAR Weekend in Las Vegas to those who were displaced from their seats at Sunday's Super Bowl. Some of the fans may also win airfare and three nights of accommodations at the Stratosphere as well.

Cope to run Bud Shootout1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope will be running the 2011 Budweiser Shootout in the # 64 Toyota Camry for Larry Gunselman of MaxQ Motorsports. Cope says he hopes to have a sponsor for the race and announce it soon. Cope's plans for the Daytona 500 are still up-in-the air. Derrike Cope site

Terry Labonte to run at DaytonaTwo-time Sprint Cup champion Terry Labonte will race in the Daytona 500 for FAS Lane Racing, a start-up Cup team owned by former crew chief Frank Stoddard. Mike Skinner is expected to drive the remainder of the season in the #32 Ford. U.S. Chrome will be the primary sponsor with the Air National Guard an associate sponsor at Daytona. "We plan to run all the races this year," says Stoddard. "I'm hoping that more funding will come down the pipe and we can ramp up to be competitive." USA Today

Record number of entries for ALMS Winter TestIt has been a long four months since the close of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr¢n. The first real steps toward the 2011 championships come at Sebring for the annual ALMS Winter Test on Wednesday and Thursday. It’s always a great chance to see what’s in store for the coming season, which starts in mid-March with the 59th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida.

More cars than ever will participate in the two-day test – 33 as of Monday. Among the entries that will garner the most attention are Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing’s Lola-Aston Martin coupe – the same car which finished third last year at the 12 Hours – and Ferrari F458 GTs for Risi Competizione and Extreme Speed Motorsports.

Michigan qualifying moves to Saturday for June eventsThe most recent of Michigan International Speedway's changes has to be one of the best values in professional sports and entertainment today. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole qualifying for Michigan International Speedway's Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 has been moved to Saturday, June 18 from its traditional Friday spot, track officials announced. And at just $20 per ticket, at the current Value Pricing Period which ends February 28, the move gives fans a chance to see a full day of competitive Saturday racing action from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series. Drivers from both series practice that day, followed by pole qualifying sessions from both series and then the 250-mile Nationwide Series race. Kids 12 and under are free that day. So a family of four can see two NASCAR race series on track all day, a race and a free concert after track activity for a reasonable price. Qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event in August will remain on Meijer Pole Day on Friday, Aug. 19. Those tickets are $7.50. Visit MISpeedway.com or call the MIS ticket hotline at 800-354-1010 today to take advantage of great pricing for 2011 events at MIS.

Mutoh returns to JapanHonda has announced that 28 year old Hideki Mutoh will end his IndyCar Series stint and switch to Japan's Super GT category for 2011. Mutoh will be paired with Japanese Formula 3 N class champion Takashi Kobayashi in an Aguri Suzuki-run Honda in Super GT.

Kubica's co-driver gives his account of accident"We knew the surface was slippery because of the humidity and we were ready," Robert Kubica's co-driver, Jakub Gerber told the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. "After skidding, the car leaned against the guard rail and pushed it outward. Then it crashed against the following section of guardrail.

"The guard rail pierced through the car and went all the way through it (as AR1.com explained last evening, Kubica was lucky to not be impaled and killed horrifically). I immediately saw it was serious, he also had a bad bruise under his eye after hitting the steering wheel. Robert passed out and I exited through the window because the door was stuck.

JTG Daugherty Racing announces sponsor lineup for 2011JTG Daugherty Racing announced their sponsor line-up for the #47 Toyota Camry as 2000 Series champion Bobby Labonte competes for a spot in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase.

To kick off the season, Labonte leads JTG Daugherty into their first-ever Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. For the 33rd annual event, the team is proud to announce a new partnership with Cequent, a TriMas company, and the Reese Towpower brand. Reese Towpower hitches will sponsor the #47 Toyota for the first time during the Shootout on Saturday February 12. In addition, Reese will sponsor the car in the All-Star event at Charlotte Motor Speedway and return as primary at Pocono Raceway in August.

For the Daytona 500, The Kroger Co. returns as primary sponsor of the #47 Toyota. In 2011, Kroger is partnering with the USO to celebrate the 70th anniversary as the leading organization that provides morale-boosting programs and services to enhance the quality of life for troops and their families around the world. In honor of our retired and active duty members of the military and their families, Kroger is donating $400,000 to the USO during the pre-race ceremonies at the 2011 Daytona 500. As a special tribute, Kroger and JTG Daugherty Racing have placed a very special logo on the hood of the #47 car for the Daytona 500. The logo includes the names of more than 350 Kroger associates from across the country who are active duty and reservist members of our nation's military. These men and women have served in our armed forces while employed by the Kroger family of stores.

Jules Bianchi finishes pre-season GP2 testing on topThe final pre-season test day took place today at Yas Marina Circuit on the 4.730 kms layout. Very early in the morning session Lotus ART’s Esteban Gutierrez set the pace in a 1:36.684 ahead of Carlin’s Max Chilton, but his lap time was soon bettered by the GP3 Series reigning Champion’s teammate Jules Bianchi who clocked in a lap time of 1:36.300. As the clock ticked down, Bianchi went quicker, so much as to become the only man to go under the 1m36s barrier, eight hundredths of a second ahead of Davide Valsecchi at Team AirAsia while Sam Bird and Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top four.

The afternoon session was a bit slower as teams mainly focused again on completing race simulations. Racing Engineering’s Dani Clos rapidly took control of the timesheet in a 1:36,619, with Johnny Cecotto at Super Nova in tow. With drivers upping their total of numbers of laps, the order remained unchanged for the first two hours, and the session was briefly red flagged twice. Entering into the final hour, Team AirAsia’s Luiz Razia edged Clos off the top. The Brazilian’s teammate Davide Valsecchi soon after moved up to P2 before snatching the top spot from Razia in a 1:36.211, and going even quicker the following lap with a 1:36.159. Marcus Ericsson moved up to P3 before another red flag occurred. A final interruption happened with 10 minutes left into the session when Valsecchi and Romain Grosjean collided. At the re-start, iSport’s Sam Bird slipped into P3 in the dying minutes of the day.

Kubica moves fingers, talks to father(GMM) The day after suffering horrific injuries in a rally smash, Robert Kubica awoke from an induced coma, talked to his father and moved his fingers.

The Pole will miss the start of the season and almost certainly all of the forthcoming 2011 schedule, but the early signs are good that he will make a recovery despite earlier fears he might lose his right hand.

However, a statement issued by his F1 team Lotus-Renault said "it will be several days before it is known if the (hand) operation has been 100 per cent successful"

Virgin launch 2011 car in London(GMM) Virgin on Monday became the tenth F1 team to reveal its 2011 car (See Home Page article).

The now partially Marussia-owned team launched the MVR-02 at the BBC television centre in London.

The car, with a notably lower nose than many of the other single seaters unveiled already this year, has once again been designed solely and uniquely with the aid of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) rather than a wind tunnel.

But rumors the MVR-02's exhaust outlets might be similar to Renault's radical front-exiting solution proved wide of the mark.

Also on Monday, Gary Paffett gave McLaren's 2011 car, the MP4-26, its debut for filming purposes near Barcelona.

The Briton's real work will begin on Tuesday with a shakedown at the Idiada Proving Ground, ahead of the car's proper circuit debut at Jerez on Thursday.

Kubica out for months - Boullier(GMM) Eric Boullier on Monday admitted Renault's mind is already turning to what to do now that Robert Kubica is out of action.

Pole Kubica, the fastest man at last week's Valencia test, had a positive night in an induced coma after surgery to repair his partially severed right hand and other injuries in a rally crash on Sunday.

Lotus-Renault's team boss Boullier told the BBC on Monday that the 26-year-old woke up successfully early on Monday and "is having good communication" with those around him.

"He is suffering (with pain) but the brain activity is ok and we are certainly more relieved than 24 hours ago," said Kubica's manager Daniele Morelli.

IMSA Restructures Logistics, Development Series ManagementInternational Motor Sports Association today announced the hiring of Steven Sewell as the Development Series Director, as former series manager Mike Simons was named to the newly created position of Director of Logistics.

“Mike has done a great job with our two development series, the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama and the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship,” said Vice President of Operations Scot Elkins. “His primary past experience is in logistics and this step is a major increase of responsibilities, which will now include all IMSA series including the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr¢n.

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